Congressman Bobby Scott (D-3rd) held a health care town hall meeting Wednesday evening in Newport News. The crowd of more than 300 sat through a brief Power Point presentation by Scott before being allowed to ask questions and make comments about the bill, H.R.3200. I tweeted the meeting, which lasted about two hours.
While there were a number of people in the room who were against health care reform, I would have to say that a majority present supported it. The entire meeting was cordial, with supporters and opponents alike thanking Scott for allowing them this opportunity. The system was simple: if you wanted to ask a question, you got a number as you came in. Then Scott drew numbers from an envelope and speakers went to one of three microphones placed around the room to ask their question or make their comment. There was no time limit imposed; in fact, I think Congressman Scott would still be there taking questions had his staff not gotten him to stop 🙂
There were participants from all over Hampton Roads, including Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. That the meeting was attended by people outside of the 3rd CD gives you an idea of how much this topic needs to be discussed. (Hint, hint Glenn Nye and Randy Forbes)
My favorite part of the evening was when the inevitable question of the constitutionality of health care came up. First the speaker made the statement that the constitution only gives us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rep. Scott, after gently advising the speaker that those words are in the Declaration of Independence, not the constitution, turned in his best Ron Paul imitation by whipping out a pocket version of the constitution and reading Section 8, Article 1. He then said if you believe Medicare is constitutional, so is health care.
PilotOnline live streamed the event; you can view their live blog of the meeting here. The Daily Press was also in attendance as was WAVY TV 10. WTKR will broadcast a healthcare town hall Thursday evening and is soliciting questions here.
Photo courtesy of PilotOnline
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Was that the same Myth-Fact PowerPoint presentation that Rep. Moran gave?
No, I do NOT think Medicare is Constitutional, and his response was not an answer to the question.
No, it wasn’t the same Power Point. It was his own.
No one ever answers your questions, do they, Mouse? Could it be that you aren’t really looking for answers?
And neither was the speaker, who posed the comment that health care was unconstitutional.
In general, I am looking for truth.
And that comment was not refuted by Rep. Scott’s reply.
According to the article, she did ask a question. Three, actually:
Scott’s response did not answer the question. He quoted Article I, Section 8, which “gives Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, pay debts and ‘provide for the general welfare of the United States.'”
Of course, just as Congress has no authority to pay anyone’s car loan or mortgage, and an amendment was required to impose personal income taxes, and the Supreme Court has ruled that even one in protective custody does not have a right to expect personal protection from the government, so too does one not have a right to expect health care from the government.
There is little question that we have an individual right to “keep and bear arms,” but no-one is arguing for the government to buy us all guns.
Having a right means that the government cannot interfere with the exercise of that right, not that the government must provide the means of that exercise.
What Scott then said was spot on:
Darn tootin’ it’s unconstitutional.
Mouse is now a constitutional scholar and history revisionist.
The constitutionality of these programs has been established by the SCOTUS. Just because you disagree with decisions which established the legal basis does not make them unconstitutional, it makes you on the losing side. That same shoe fits for me with many decisions from the SCOTUS we have today. This dates back to the founders with disagreements between Hamilton and Madison and Jefferson. By the way, the SCOTUS ruled 7-2 in favor of Social Security, a landslide in terms of the 5-4 decisions we get today.
So you, as usual, are as wrong as can be. But that is standard for today’s right wing.
Constitutional scholar is not difficult. You should try it sometime. When you do, check out the nonsense the court used to rationalize Social Security. (It was done under FDR’s threat to stack the court, and they had to write something.) Go read it. When the court comes up with BS like that to rationalize a political decision, we all lose.